Can Crohn's be hard to diagnose?

Hi,

I'm wondering about others' experience in getting Crohn's diagnosed. For the past 4 months my husband has been having abdominal pain, enormous bloating, and joint pain when he eats. He alternates between constipation and severe diarrhea. Dietary modifications have helped a bit--he's gone off of dairy, gluten, artificial sweeteners, raw vegetables, etc.--he's basically living on rice noodles and avocados. But he's still having such severe symptoms that he can't work or participate in most daily activities.

He's had a colonoscopy and lots of blood and stool tests, and everything keeps coming back normal. The only time symptoms improved was when he was on a course of steroids (for a bad sinus infection). This sounds more like Crohns than anything else, but the GI tells us that he's ruled that out, and has no further ideas.

Any suggestions?

has he had a small bowel study or swallowed a pillcam?

It took 25 years and nearly dying before anyone took me seriously, but getting properly diagnosed should be a bit faster these days.

I got diagnosed relatively quickly. I had mild but chronic diarrhoea, which hadn't gone away after a few weeks, so I went to my GP. Miraculously enough I got one who didn't tell me it was stress or IBS and "come back in 6 months if it wasn't any better". He arranged for blood and stool tests. No idea what they showed, but I got a referral to my local hospital who did a colonoscopy and small bowel barium follow-through. Zing: Crohn's disease.

Precisely because my symptoms were so mild (pretty much 1 loose BM a day, no pain, fever, blood, etc.) I actually didn't believe the diagnosis for a long time. I was dumb.

Anyway, yes I have a suggestion. Get small bowel tests: pill cam, barium follow-through and/or MRI scan. Don't be fobbed off with an endoscopy, the docs need to see the entire small bowel.